USG discusses expansion of counseling services, Lawnparties
Durva TrivediGuests from the Graduate Student Government and Counseling and Psychological Services spoke at Sunday night’s USG Senate meeting. Dr. Calvin Chin, the director of CPS, addressed ways that CPS and USG can collaborate to spread the message that it's important to “not be afraid to acknowledge vulnerability, and to not be afraid to reach out and get resources.” Chin said that on their end, CPS is expanding counseling services' availability hours in the fall, developing their new initiative which places a CPS wellness outpost in the EQuad for drop-ins, working on a bystander intervention program in partnership with SHARE, putting together training so that students, faculty and staff can be trained to act as allies and working on destigmatizing mental illness. Chin said he wants students to know that “it’s okay to have stress, it’s okay to feel displaced, it’s okay sometimes to feel not okay, it’s okay to feel overwhelmed.” Chin said he hopes to communicate that message through a variety of video projects, including a Princeton Speaks Up initiative of short student, faculty and staff testimonial videos.
